Loads Not Secured - Stupid, But True

Member

I was following a single axle dump pulling a tag-a-long beaver tail with a Cat 955 dozer on it. We were on a 2-lane county road with a lot of bad curves. I noticed that the Cat wasn't chained down. Two curves later the 955 slid off the trailer, the bucket digging into the road, spinning it around 180 degrees and coming to a stop on it's tracks, on the shoulder of the road. It snagged the guy wire supporting a telephone pole and snapped the top of the pole off. With wires all over the road, we couldn't move.
A fellow following me, driving a pick-up with a tow-behind air compressor, pulled down and jack-hammered the guy wires. The guy with the Cat, started it up and pushed the pole and wires to the side.
I asked him why didn't he have it chained down. He replied, "I was just going 2 miles and didn't think I needed them". As I pulled around him and was leaving, he was driving the 955 back on the trailer. I still wonder if he chained it down.

Story #2

I was fueling up at a small fuel stop. The pumps were about 20 yards from the road. There was a off-camber curve right there. I heard a truck come down the road and his Jake came on as he entered the curve. Then a loud crashing noise. I turned to look and saw a medium-size paving machine coming right at me. I ran and it came to a stop about 10 feet from my truck. He didn't have the machine chained down either.

curmudgeon extraordinare

Quack

I hauled a 43 foot long, 30-some thousand pound machine that makes Girl Scout cookies, unsecured in a reefer from NJ to SD, running together with a friend with an identical machine and truck. Also unsecured.

We were on a county road about ten miles from my house because we were going to take a 10 hour break there.

There's a curve, posted 50 mph. I always take it at 45 in a truck, but took it at 40 this time because of the load.

He was about a half mile behind me. I told him on the CB to take this curve at 40 because it's sharper than it looks.

He entered it at 50 and hammered on it, and said he hit 60 before he was out of it.

The loads weren't sealed, so I opened his doors when we got to my farm. His machine had slipped sideways and was up against the wall. He was that close to rolling it on that curve, being stupid. And we had no way of moving it back to the center.

jammer

you mean to tell me you couldn't redneck engineer a way to move it I am seriously disappointed no self respecting redneck would have ever admitted it, you are banned for at least a month from the redneck society of America, get your act together

Yup....too many folks, drivers and shippers both, think that as long as it's in an enclosed trailer......it's secure.
Meanwhile you could almost put your hand thru the wall of today's lightweight vans.

curmudgeon extraordinare

Infidel

Yup....too many folks, drivers and shippers both, think that as long as it's in an enclosed trailer......it's secure.
Meanwhile you could almost put your hand thru the wall of today's lightweight vans.

I posted a pic one time of some aluminium ingots I had removed from my trailer after loading.

Ol @Tim and Ducks hero @blackw900 both started a hysteria filled rant about dumb ass box drivers not knowing securement, how I should not post stiff like that because it showed how stupid and dangerous I was.......yak yak yak

Both shut up when I explained those were the same pics I had sent to Kelvin (safety at Titan) about why we were having the load removed from our trailer when they refused to block them in.

But yeah these new trailers or simply 3/8" plastic with stakes every 4 feet. Really amazes me we do not get more inspections for securement on box vans.